Note that Trump has announced that the words "climate change" have been excised from the National Security Statement.
"The Federalist website apparently was privy to an advance copy of a draft of the speech and says it will oppose efforts to reduce the burning of oil, gas and coal for energy. “US leadership is indispensable to countering an anti-growth energy agenda that is detrimental to US economic and energy security interests,” the website quoted the document as saying. “Given future global energy demand, much of the developing world will require fossil fuels, as well as other forms of energy, to power their economies and lift their people out of poverty.”
Note that this implies that it is impossible for you to improve your economy by reducing the burning of fossil fuels. A dogmatic absolute. Not letting the market decide. It also implies that national security is all about greed regardless of other consequences.
Don't forget India, Japan and Turkey on the "trending ethnotyranny" list.
I wouldn't say there even is a Free World coalition as of this year. The democracies, without the US, are a bunch of sidekicks with no hero. And they were far too happy being sidekicks, looking away as our nation engaged in an increasing number of irrational acts over the last few decades.
We are probably past the point where we can come out of this with a democracy as the world's leader. The question now is China's strategy of leadership: will it just be a more outward-looking corporate dictatorship than Russia and the US, or will it try to engage the world on a level deeper than economic domination?
It is true that the seeds of fascism already have been sewn. This looting of land and people embodied in R Tax Bill is evidence that the Rs and backers foresee unrest and reversal, and are trying to take what more they can as fast as they can. When more pain kicks in, as it inevitably will, the excuses are already built in. It will be the fault of the immigrants and minorities, and those of a non-traditionalist cultural points of view. Clinton represented a last chance at fragile consensus. Instead of rule with message of inclusion, there is rule by division, cultural warfare. Without corporate welfare in 2008, there could have been broader unrest. Back then Rs already had been courting danger, with appeals to nationalism and prejudice. Such appeals are even more explicit now. It also is more likely that economic distress emanating from this tax bill will generate unrest, this in the near future, years not decades. The forces of plutocracy are poised to deal with this likelihood, to repress opposition, and to embark upon a kind of warfare that is more than just cultural. It may not even take unrest to unleash some repression, as the fear of the sheer consequences of the vote could well be enough.
The threat that President Trump and his incoherent National Security Strategy, which was somewhat different from the text that he was reading from the teleprompter, pose to America and to the world lies in the following factors:
1- His obsession to undermine the achievements of his predecessors (mainly one predecessor), accusing them of “disastrous trade deals”, the “disastrous, weak, and incomprehensibly bad deal with Iran”, “allowing terrorists such as ISIS to gain control of vast parts of territory all across the Middle East”, etc.
2- His unabashed praise for his own amazing achievements, boasting how single-handedly he has defeated ISIS; of course with no mention of the Russian bombing, and the contribution of Syrian, Iranian, Iraqi, and Hezbollah forces fighting ISIS on the ground.
3- How he has renewed “our friendships in the Middle East and partnered with regional leaders to help drive out terrorists and extremists, cut off their financing, and discredit their wicked ideology.” He seems to have forgotten that in his campaign speeches he accused those very states, especially Saudi Arabia, of organizing and financing terrorism.
4- His maniacal hostility to Iran, which has been mentioned no less than 12 times in the text, linking her to North Korea as a rogue state. He accuses Iran of being “the main sponsor of terrorism in the world”, and “developing more capable ballistic missiles and has the potential to resume its work on nuclear weapons that could threaten the United States and our partners.” This is the country that was prepared to give up its entire nuclear program in 2003, and finally reached an agreement with all five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany to mothball her nuclear program for 10-15 years and even after the so-called “sunset clauses” will remain a member of the NPT and the Additional Protocol, subject to continued, unprecedented inspections.
5- His sudden, unexpected outburst against an alleged ally Pakistan, stating: “The United States continues to face threats from transnational terrorists and militants operating from within Pakistan”, and issuing the following threat: “We will insist that Pakistan take decisive action against militant and terrorist groups operating from its soil.”
6- His dismissal of the Arab-Israeli conflict as “an irritant preventing peace and prosperity in the region.” With such a lack of understanding of this complex conflict, it is clear that he will not be able to propose any solution to it.
7- No mention of Russian interference in the American election! His only complaint against China and Russia was that they “challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity. They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence.” Presumably he expects other countries not to compete with America and not to develop their militaries or economies while the United States is spending $1.5 trillion upgrading her nuclear arsenal.
8- No mention of climate change!
In short, the main problem with this so-called strategy is that it is a collection of angry and harsh outbursts without any coherence and without any strategy to deal with the real problems in the contemporary world. This is what poses the greatest threat to America and the rest of the world.
The problem is your use of "tons." Lebanon has 4 million citizens and 25,000 Hizbullah fighters. That would be equivalent to a massive army of 2 million US fighters under arms with training, medium and heavy weaponry, and line of command, twice as large as the US military. Doesn't exist.
While the warmongers define their misdirected meaning of the word ‘jihad’ these same evil spirited war profiteers bring a new 21st Century meaning to the title of ‘Western Crusader’. It’s the best these destroyers of life and all that’s good can come with since they loss their ‘Iron Curtain Communist’, so we citizens need to adjust our crosshairs to see our new designated enemy. Funny how what we are protecting ourselves from is an evil from within, but no instead lets pick a new group to place the blame on for the threat to our American way of life. This method of sorting out the good from the bad, and choosing who will be among our most valued allies, has instead brought America to this lonely place where all empires come to die.
The allies about whom Der Furor speaks are actual or effectively fascist and racist or otherwise violently exclusionary states like Hungary, Russia, China, Poland, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. These and others are all models spawned and encouraged by the worst instincts and practices of the United States and which had leaned or become fascistic even before Trump came along. Now Trump's America is its ersatz leader and inspiration.
This group is also the core of an already developing future fascist alliance that will ascend to an effective political supremacy across 'The West' (with 'junior' allies elsewhere) and begin waging utter militarism and outright wars and economic sabotage and re-exploitation across the world against states attempting to remain democratic, including against China also, against which I think the United States will turn at some point.
Germany is more or less the new leader of what's been called The Free World. France still keeps its own fascist cadres in check too. Merkel is weakened politically now though thanks to Trump's shunning and Germany's own longstanding burgeoning fascist underbelly and it will likely soon cede governing to a further 'right' government, which will be only one step removed from a checkmate against democratic institutions internationally, as Britain is already 'right'-oriented and further shrinking from a democratic role.
This, to me, represents a very possible immediate future. It's later than we think. This scenario is not 100% inevitable at this moment, but I'd guess it's well over 50% and rising fast (like a Hitler salute), given the hatefully blind sociopathic wrongheadedness of those in charge of the United States and those countries and of this entire mess.
Aside from misconceptions about terrorists, what is depressing is the absence of any interest in seeking cooperative solutions to myriad global issues. I don't believe Russia and China are threats to the US although I see they may be so to US empire ambitions, but those are unsustainable anyway. This Trump mindset is increasingly forcing other nations to look to tackling issues without the US, something they cannot really do since the space left where the US should be cannot otherwise be filled. The rest of the world can try, of course, but efforts lacking full global collaboration can lead to devastating unintended consequences. The real long term problem may be less what the US is doing, trampling all over the world, bad as that is, but what it is not doing.
"....where do they get their funding and arms from."
Answer: Iran, largely via assistance in arms, training, and funding from the al-Quds Force; multinational pharmaceutical companies also help, per allegations in recent federal lawsuit.
"......who allocates them land and property to to have a base etc....(?)"
Answer: Iraqi militias, the Mahdi Army for example, administer their own police force and a court system imposing religious law as well as a social welfare network to support the population it controls.
As much as I despise these authoritarian regimes, I think their attitude is similar to Mafia bosses who want to carve up the world between them and then cash in. But as we saw in Orwell's 1984, a stable division of the world between sufficiently cynical dictators may be the worst possible outcome, since they can coordinate to manufacture any war to keep their people under control. An awful lot of horrible things have happened in eras of multipolarity.
Both siderism has not been proven bankrupt to me. You list a number of things that the democrats are defending. From my perspective that list is made up of things that the Democratic Party is only pretending to defend.
From my perspective not all Democrats are in on the con. None the less the con of two parties competing with each other is an extraordinarily good con. The con is so good because it is very hard to imagine the details of how the con is actually coordinated in an apparently changing environment.
E V E N if I am overly syndical and American democracy really is more real than the World Wide Wrestling Federation it would still be true that if some people tried to arrest only Republicans and or ban only the Republican Party they would meet even more resistance than if they banned both parties. The first ban would be viewed as an underhanded partisan attack by godless commies against the off spring of America's greatest generation, attempting to eventually turn America in to a provence of Russia, or Iran, or maybe even North Korea.
If the second ban were actually enacted, I would be willing to bet 100 dollars, which is a lot of money for me, that this ban would be viewed by almost everyone as an even handed intervention by authorities that are going to restore the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, or John F. Kennedy.
War is bestial because it kills compassion and that's what's left without it. What militias do when their primary task is over is an ancient problem. Only a citizen army raised for finite domestic purpose has the ability to dissolve back into the society from which it emerged. The Romans reflected this with their deity Janus who presided over the beginning and ending of conflict and whose temple doors were symbolically opened when men went to war, and closed when they returned home. In Europe, the Thirty Years war was one of the most brutal examples of the devastation foot-loose militia inflict. Something quite soulless happens to men in war. (vide the German novel Simplicius Simplicissimuslink to en.wikipedia.org. We tend to obscure those truths by isolating examples and pinning them on individuals or specific groups. The prospect is almost more daunting than the war since it can lead to directionless chaos.
I not sure I follow entirely the argument that these militias are a separate entity. For instance: where do they get their funding and arms from? Further, who allocates them land and property to have a base etc. There is also the matter of communications and strategy they would need to operate effectively. Militias are essentially factional based and are usually employed in fighting those who are not part of their clan. More often than not, its resistance to the army (the government) that has brought about the formation of the militias in the first place. I suspect that as long as there is racial and religious intolerance in the middle East there will always be tension and conflict with militias being vital to the various factions.
Even though Puerto Rican residents were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917 by an Act of Congress and were immediately subject to a military draft that year, Puerto Ricans do NOT vote in general presidential elections nor do they nominate Electors to the Electoral College.
That said, both the Democratic and Republican party organizations hold primary elections for the purpose of sending delegates to the national party conventions every four years - so Puerto Ricans have a say in who is nominated from these parties.
The article tries to make hay out of something that was obvious all along: Russia was protecting its interests in Syria, which includes a friendly regime and Russian military bases. Those interests have not changed. Therefore, it should be no surprise that Russia will continue to keep forces in the region and will augment those forces if needed.
The similarity to the U.S. actions in Iraq should be noted. We "pulled out" of Iraq as the status of forces agreement required. But with the ramp up of the conflict against ISIS in Mosul and elsewhere, our forces went back in. I think it is safe to say that the U.S. is in Iraq to stay.
I believe that the American voters are not going to counter the sick and dangerous control that Trump has unless the corrupt news media including PBS (Public Bull Shat) is replaced with intelligent, truthful and wise news and information, and that the ignorant, non-wise and gutless Electoral College electors for each state are replaced with wise and intelligent electors that would never vote in a known woman abuser, a liar and a possible angry, manic depressive individual that tweets nonsense.
Shouldn't there be written and oral exams by the government for all government positions including the President and vice president of the United States?
I read one of Trump's tweets and was total amazed at the ignorance shown. Doesn't the President and other government officials consult with experts on their staff before making public remarks, decisions or submitting executive orders to avoid making mistakes - England will arrest Trump if he lands in England.
I am no fan of the Dems - I have voted Green and I've voted Nader, but dammit, I am now done with that after the past election. Hillary was far from perfect, but nowhere near the menace that Trump represents.
Both-siderism was proven a bankrupt way of looking at the world last year. If you think both sides are equally nefarious then at this point I just think that is some sort of hipster stance. You don't prove that you are cool by being cynical - you just prove that you are foolish and willing to wreak enormous damage for the sake of an empty point (see, at this late date, Glen Greenwald).
Yeah, Dems have failed on a lot of fronts - I am not fond of them and their support for corporate America and forever wars. But you defend health care, a diverse society, women's rights, the climate, academic freedom, research and science, and a relatively healthy economy with the political party you have, not the one you would like to have.
I've lived in other countries I consider civilized. If I had the resources I would exit the US tomorrow to escape what I see as inevitable fascism, or worse, civil unrest. I am hoping that by the time that happens I will.
We are all of us running out the clock. And by the way, screw the concerns of Republicans - after all, didn't they just say that to all of us with their lethal tax bill, the first big step in gutting Social Security and Medicare.
What do you call Paul Ryan in prison? A good start. Hell, I've paid into Social Security for 40 years and now he wants to take it away - let's all make a massive citizen's arrest for theft.
This is the kind of news that is totally ignored by the US mainstream media, which instead spends days discussing the latest tweet by our demented and bigoted President Pig.
Dear Grumpy Great Grandpa,
If people who agree with your comment about outlawing the Repulbican party were to gain 5 seats on the Supreme Court and 67 seats in the Senate and 300 seats in the House, and 34 govenorships and the Republican Party was outlawed there would still be a civil war in America.
If on the other hand BOTH of the major corrupt pariies were outlawed there would be a huge sigh of relief in America from hundreds of millions of people and everyone would go to back to work just as if nothing important had happened.
Yes it is true that realistically, currently, only the Democratic Party would have a chance in hell of getting those type of results in through a democratic process. They certainly would not outlaw themselves.
But if we wanted to imagine a situation in which the Republicans could be outlawed, say a massive victory by the Greens, or Libertarians, this winning power would have to outlaw both parties.
If we were to indulge ourselves, and smoke a lot of pot, we might imagine a scenaria in which perhaps at some point in the future the vote is very divided up and through luck or perhaps even cheating the Greens or Libertarians achieve these formal results. if that were the case and the new leadership wanted to actually act on your suggestion Republicans would be enraged that their party alone had been outlawed. But if the Democratic Party were simultaneously outlawed Republicans would be molified, and vice versa.
Is it not true that the overwhelming majority of the voters do not vote for someone that they like they vote against someone that they do not like.
Last I heard, Costa Rica plans to a carbon neutral country by 2022 or so.
Not so incidentally, a friend who has been doing environmental work in Costa Rica since the 1970s is not so happy about the extent of hydroelectricity there as it has some very negative ecological consequences.
Can people whose legal residence is on Puerto Rico, vote in the presidential election year, for choice of US president? Does our constitution prohibit that vote?
Jesus, the Russians have their own Blackwater.
We really are living in Orwell's world of functionally identical tyrannies dividing up the planet between them.
I'm going to end up cheering for Chinese Blackwater because those mercenaries will be working for the least corrupt empire.
America imposes its prejudices on the world.
Consider that 100 years ago, the Arabs were the heroes of the American media, thanks to Lowell Thomas' romantic reporting of Lawrence's Arab rebel army fighting the Turks. Jews, on the other hand, were widely despised as radical conspirators and unassimilable aliens because of the flood of rural Eastern European Jews fleeing the Czar straight into US ghettoes. If you'd taken a poll, maybe people would have said the Lebanese Arabs immigrating into Michigan were better Americans than the Jews.
Yet decades before that flood, Jews were relatively respected because that generation of Jews were middle-class Germans, such that a Jew served as Confederate Secretary of State.
So the "race" that creates problems in the USA right now is coded terrorist and radical and impossible to assimilate, and the one that (1) contributes to our capitalism with the least hassle or (2) stays in its exotic homeland so our media can spin romantic yarns about it, is considered worthy of human rights in a very abstract sense.
The Zionists figured this out and spent generations shaping the media narrative to seize the mantle of humanity away from Arabs. They had the choice of sharing that mantle instead as fellow Semites, but Jabotinsky admitted all those years ago that the goal was to do to the Arabs what the Americans had done to the Indians. That Civilizing Settlers vs. Barbaric Redskins narrative was a natural sell in America.
I think it needs to be said much more forcefully that the GOP is by no means "latently" white supremacist or racist. Given the historic trajectory of the party:
1. There was Barry Goldwater's opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
2. Nixon's Southern Strategy.
3. Reagan starting his campaign in 1980 in Philadelphia Mississippi where civil rights workers were murdered with the help of local police in 1964, and his coded terms about "welfare queens" and "young bucks" abusing food stamps.
4. Lee Atwater, Willie Horton, and George H. W. Bush's gruesome 1988 campaign (that now looks, post Trump, like a children's tea party).
5. Bush II's response to Katrina (despite his relatively diverse cabinet).
6. And let's not forget the campaign by various surrogates in the right wing hate industry who spent the years after Bush whipping up animus among the base whose head collectively exploded at the election of a black president - birtherism anyone?
7. The GOP embrace of a creature who started his campaign with openly bigoted remarks about Mexicans, which easily morphed into equally discriminatory remarks against Muslims, people of color, and women.
I am sorry to be repetitive, but it simply cannot be said enough: At some point the GOP must be outlawed as a white supremacist hate group. And we might add, given their standard bearer in the White House, that there are now further grounds for outlawing the party as one that is frankly and blatantly anti-constitutional and pro-fascist (see, e.g., questioning the first amendment, attempting to undermine a free press, an independent judiciary, ignoring the emoluments clause, the response to Charlottesville, the spider Bannon still squirting his poison into the king's ear, not to mention dereliction of duty in providing for the common defense or promoting the general welfare). Moreover, if they manage to strip millions of health care with that sham piece of "legislation" known as the tax bill, then hell, we can add in crimes against humanity (since countless Americans will die for want of health care) - in fact, why not use Puerto Rico as a pretext, since the on-going disaster is one manufactured by the GOP.
In my books there are no good Republicans: if you stand with a bigoted anti-constitutionalist authoritarian, to me that pretty much makes you a bigoted anti-constitutionalist authoritarian, whether that is a member of Congress, the White House, or just one of their ignorant supporters in the street, and they have long since shown their truest nature.
Given that the Governor's party is considered the more conservative one other than its advocacy for statehood and is therefore the GOP's natural ally, you might also say that this proves Republicans take the votes of conservative people of color for granted. But of course, these days you can be as conservative as Reagan or the Bushes and still be denounced by the President and the ideological priesthoods of all the dominant factions of the Right as a Commie.
Australia has small island territories that are too small to have separate representation but the principle has been established that Australian citizens living on Australian territory should be represented in the Federal Parliament. Accordingly they vote for, and are represented by, a member of the House of Representatives and two Senators for either the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory (equivalent of DC.) The US should have full Congressional representation for the millions of Puerto Rican Americans but for smaller island territories perhaps the Australian model could be considered.
Some time ago I wrote in my blog questioning, do people still watch the news? Because I don't ....I just choose what I want to watch on my computer and cast it to my TV screen.
My TV box is only useful to warm up my cat paws :)
So at last I don't have to watch advertisement and elongated news session that have no news...
Hence, cooperates got to think now of innovative ways to control our brains and pockets
My Parents were researchers in an American University for 2-3 years during the late 60s
They told me that keeping the American people ignorant is a policy. You can drive ignorant the way you choose.
Little that they know that the western liberalisation wave that taken over the MENA region since the end of 19th century used the same policy ..... that went into stages and we are harvesting the results of ignorance with so much suffering
granted this is just a thought experiment,
but until we outgrow this limiting concept of a hugely interconnected and interdependent nation-wide grid,
then T&D costs are never going to permit free electricity.
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Rumsfeld's decision to substitute Mercenaries for disciplined uniformed infantrymen cost the US military the war in Iraq. The Dogs brutally slayed almost 2 million innocents, compared to fewer than 100,000 killed by uniformed Soldiers and Marines on the ground, and fewer than 250,000 killed from the air by the US Air Force.
Our stated purpose was to win over the local population; that goal was rendered unattainable through the use of Mercs.
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But the Russians were not in Syria to win hearts or minds;
they were there to destroy ISIS.
Letting lawless, undisciplined wanton killers loose on the civilian populations did not hurt their war aims.
As far as I could tell,
there were almost no Mercenaries supporting the US military in Syria. Maybe we learned our lesson ?
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The cost of the technology to harvest and store energy will never be "free," but after the probably very low initial technology cost, the ongoing costs will be very close to "free."
Thank you for telling the truth.It just breaks my heart knowing what is being done to SO many innocent lives with the help of American weapons.These people ' our government 'have NO shame.They go to bed every night not having to worry that a bomb could destroy their home and kill the people they love.....
Hopefully, twice-tossed-from-the-bench former judge - the accused paedophile and mall cruising lecher Roy Moore saddles-up old Kayla and rides off into the sunset waving his little girly gun and flipping the bird.
In Canada, medical cannabis has been legal for a long time and on 1 July 2018, recreational cannabis will become legal in all provinces and territories. It will be sold in government run or regulated stores (like alcohol) and in most places, individuals may, in addition, possess up to 4 live plants.
In 2013, at a book signing at the 92nd Street Y in New York, 71-year-old Martha Stewart, the homemaking perfectionist, said she once saw a young couple smoking "sloppy joints" and remarked "Of course I know how to roll a joint."
As Bob Dylan wrote in 1964 and oftan sang, "For the times, they are a-changin'."
Anyone who is not following these developments closely, as elites endeavor to consolidate their control over individuals, should be monitoring techdirt.com for as long as they and other websites IC are able to continue.
The empowerment of fascism in its variety of forms, is what techdirt tracks with depressing professionalism and thoroughness. There are lessons IC might take from them in its current re-invention.
This particularly pertinent post shows the total lack of good faith with which Ajit Pai and his cronies are manipulating events, showing them mocking the people they ostensibly serve and actually reviling in the maliciousness of their agenda. Inflammatory as it is, back-out to their homepage to get more detailed documentation of what the new FCC is doing and other developments along these lines.
Another reaction to the original IC post is that there are bound to be numerous technical work-arounds to what is very much a determined plot. Things such as VPN's can evolve to provide more privacy and maintain access, but it will be at a cost and that is the intention. Pressure will also doubtlessly increase on the technical sophistication to use such tools. This would all be part of a plan which has to be seen clearly for what it is.
The point of barriers being created for the purpose of (no other word for it) subjugation, is what to keep in focus.
There will be many distinct forces urging moves like this. We see the ones that touch us most closely and that's natural but they are trees in a wood. There appears today to be a nisus urging us away from the bigger picture; tasks are broken down and operatives can function without knowing what final product they are engaged in making, science studies particles too small for the human eye or even mind, historians concentrate on elements so specialist only another specialist could read them; when these works began to dominate a well known University Publisher's list I imagined one day a vastly expensive study of Gender Ambiguity in Third Century Dacia. It seems somewhat less fanciful today. If we consider the three best known dystopian novels, Zamyatin’s We, Huxley's Brave New World, and Orwell's 1984, which are all set in futures when dystopia is firmly established, it may be salutary to think what it must have been like to live in the periods when it was still evolving, when enveloping darkness might still be dismissed as just a passing cloud.
Providers can now parcel out discreet functions selected by users to bill separately and in addition to on-going usage fees.
Likely targets are extemporaneous actions such as SEARCH, email and TEXT. Social media will get fee portals to access. Censorship is likely since it has been set into motion at the Cabinet level of the Trump administration.
Forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
I'm sure Jeff Sessions will be all over this. He's been champing at the bit to liberalize American marijuana policy.
Sorry, I'm back now. Climate change, Jerusalem, marijuana - one wonders on how many other issues will the United States be out of step with the world before Reichspräsident Strumpf and Vice Ayatollah Pence leave office.
According to the Zionists, evangelicals, and US leaders in the White House and Congress, Palestinians (and Muslims), cannot resist, protest, or make demands, when they are occupied, shocked and awed, blockaded, have their lands stolen, homes demolished, families killed by Western and Israeli bombs, and if they do, they are referred to as "terrorists".
"Never again" is for the Jews, but when it comes to the Muslims, it is "again and again". The Palestinians have every right to be angry, and disappointed, by Trump's back stabbing policies, and perhaps this is a reality check that the US will NEVER be honest broker, and they have to re-think their plans to get their statehood, freedom, and lands back. The rest of the civilized world, must support them now.
Why is that scoundrel in law quiet now? Jared has done his bit for the motherland, and Netanyahu must be thrilled.
Side Point: What constitutes "Jerusalem"? For example, "after Israel conquered the West Bank in 1967, it expanded East Jerusalem’s borders more than tenfold, to seventy square kilometers. In the process, Israel incorporated twenty-eight Palestinian towns and villages that had never been considered part of Jerusalem before, some of which are actually closer to Bethlehem or Ramallah than to the Old City.” link to detailedpoliticalquizzes.wordpress.com
Elon Musk might be a game changer with his 4,425 satellites enabling phone calls and data to the whole World...
"In November, SpaceX filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to launch 4,425 satellites into orbits between 690 and 825 miles above the Earth. “Once fully deployed, the SpaceX System will pass over virtually all parts of the Earth’s surface and therefore, in principle, have the ability to provide ubiquitous global service,” SpaceX said in its application. “Every point on the Earth’s surface will see, at all times, a SpaceX satellite.”
SpaceX will first deploy 1,600 satellites to offer Internet access in the U.S., and the rest to expand coverage around the world. It’s not clear whether SpaceX will offer access directly or through other companies like Google, which in 2015 participated in a $1 billion investment in SpaceX to help it build satellites." link to fortune.com
More than half the battle Jean-Ollivier is keeping just Americans ignorant. One wealthy nation of 326 million is enough to both fund and man the plutocracy's wars.
The end of net neutrality could be the last nail in the coffin of democracy. The press is already a bought out cheerleading section. One can count the number of real journalists left with a solid MSM platform on the fingers of one hand. There used to be hundreds, just thirty years ago.
On the other hand, what the Russians have anything to do with this, I don't understand.
deliver it into the hands of a few billionaires and of governments such as the Russian Federation, who can pay for a fast lane.
The American government is working very hard to make sure that Russia based media cannot reach Americans at all. The truth hurts. It's amazing that twenty five years after the end of the cold war that American media offer all the variety of opinion of Pravda and Western news organisations fear hard hitting, fearless Russian reporters.
"Even the most recent violence against the Rohingya is situated within decades of persecution that has seen their rights diminish and has left the community of more than one million largely stateless. The government and the Myanmar public have long labeled them as “Bengali interlopers” at worst and as “foreign guests” at best."
source : Foreign Affairs : The Myanmar Military's Legacy of Impunity How the Rohingya Crisis Fits a Historical Pattern
Seems that the persecution is now in view of the radar.
I wonder whether the FCC net neutrality killing is really relevant, as long as some countries (or rather their national or regional legislation) keeps the FCC rule's span within domestic boundaries.
Of course, I am not sure what the words 'national', 'regional', 'domestic' now mean in this field ...
The world does not care. These are dirt poor Muslims, and no one seems to want to hold those responsible for these war crimes, and horrible massacre of helpless people, accountable. The brutal military junta of Myanmar should be sanctioned, until they stop the rape, attacks, and the ethnic cleansing, and all aid to them, stopped. The nations that supply deadly weapons, and train these killers, like Israel, must also be held accountable. Israel has been interfering and manipulating nations like Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, and still do.
Happy to say Canada is four-square behind maintaining net freedom. I found you when you were on blogger Mr. Cole, I am eternally grateful for your daily dose of truth.
This isn't about money. This is the beginning of censorship as we have not know it in the U.S.A. A fascist, in my opinion, is the President of the U.S.A. and he is implementing his agenda. Here is another step.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has had a long history in the West Bank, even after militarily withdrawing from the region during the Six Day War in 1967.
The Kingdom of Jordan up to 1988 administered the West Bank simultaneously while the Israel Defense Forces occupied it, making welfare benefits available to those residents until the State of Palestine was declared on November 15, 1988.
West Bank Palestinians had received Jordanian passports and had unelected representatives hold seats in the Jordanian parliament. The declaration by the P.L.O. of statehood in 1988 supplanted Jordan administration of the West Bank.
Today Jordanian dinars, along with Israeli shekels and U.S. dollars are the predominant currencies used by the public in the West Bank.
The UN Special Rapporteur should have visited places like Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in SD. He would have seen hunger and cold, shabby housing, and no jobs within a hundred miles. What are these people to do?
If Israeli hardliners looked into a mirror they would understand that the Biblical verse Proverbs (Mishle) 16:18 applies to them.
"Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall."
The original plan to have two states--one Jewish and one Palestinian--with an international city, Jerusalem (al-Quds), that would be a joint civil condominium shared by both states was a solution worthy of Soloman (peace be upon him). Such a joint capital could have two "burroughs", West Jerusalem (Jewish) and East Jerusalem (Palestinian), each with its own civil government (local council) and an "urban council" for joint, shared activities, with free passage for all citizens between them and a joint Christian, Muslim, Jewish religious council to protect the holy places and assure their accessibility to all. This would not prevent Israelis from considering the entire region to be their religious capital and to claim "ownership" from a religious (spiritual) point of view.
Today, the Israelis treat the Arab citizens of Israel as second class citizens and in doing so overlook their own rules since returning to the Holy Land.
On the basis of the position of the Meiri (Bet Habehirah, Bava Kama, 113b) recognizing both Muslims and Christians as monotheistic believers bound by the minimal moral code, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi in Israel, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kuk ruled (Iggeret 89; Mishpat-Cohen 63) that Muslims and Christians living in a predominant
Jewish society must be treated as gerim toshavim, i.e., with full civil liberties, just as Jews are treated.
One Orthodox Jewish movement, Naturei Karta, supports the Palestinians and disavows all Zionist claims to statehood in the Holy Land. According to them, "The Palestinians are the victims of the Zionist movement's moral blindness and obstinate refusal to take into account the existence of peoples other than themselves. The Palestinian people have a right to their homeland. And they have a right to financial restitution for property loss and damages inflicted upon them over the past decades."
"This sort of arrangement, where there are two sovereign states, with an open border between them, and close co-operation economically and in other ways, is often called a confederation....."
Agreed.
America began as a confederation and eventually adopted its Constitution in 1787 which created a federal government which had very limited powers in certain areas such as taxing and spending, raising an army, coining money etc. but eventually expanded through constitutional amendment and judicial rulings into a powerful central government that exists today. The European Union is doing the same thing to its member states.
Given the extensive distrust and acrimony between the Israeli government leadership and the Palestinian Authority, confederation is the best alternative as a starting point with a stronger federal governing body developing over time as the two sides ameliorate their relations toward eventual merger into a single state.
"One point on which I differ with you is the question of the border..........this would be an injustice."
My reasoning in adopting the "Green Line" is that it reflects the reality of disparate bargaining power between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority - in other words, granting meaningful autonomy to Palestinian Arabs will require a price - that price being exacted from the Palestinian Authority will likely take the form of land concessions to Israel approximating the Green Line borders with certain land swaps to reflect practical demographic realities. Currently the Palestinian Authority is a quisling government owing its existence to Israel; at worst, it has been compared to the Judenrat of the Warsaw Ghetto.
The economic damage to both sides has been staggering. The Israel Chamber of Commerce estimated that the Second Intifada cost Israel 25 to 35 billion dollars in losses. Social welfare program allocations in the Israeli government's budget have been scavenged to finance the ongoing occupation.
The proportionate economic damage to Palestinians has been even more extensive, highlighted by massive unemployment and child malnutrition in Gaza.
Ending the current occupation and implementation of an agreed-upon viable peace plan would likely increase the standard of living for citizens on both sides.
Fiction doesn’t always turn into reality, but in this case it’s halfway there already. So the odds are good that it will to a considerable degree. Look at the increasing proliferation of toll roads as an example. Who wants that?!
Thinking about it, this could be seen as a fresh breath of useful and ultimately positive honesty.
Whatever one's vision of the future they want to live in, it does no one any good denying the reality of what is going on, when denial only frustrates the natural dialect that should be playing out.
In this case, the US quitting its pretense of being anything other than Israel's lawyer and lackey allows everyone to see things more clearly for what they really are. Whatever lies ahead, we are closer to reaching an honest truth today then we were yesterday, when everyone was pretending the relationship between the US and Israel was anything other than what it really was. The cowardice of prior administrations really can be seen as having obstructed reaching an appropriate resolution to the conflict, whatever forces this particular move may yet unleash.
This is the upside to Trump in a number of other spheres as well. No longer does the GOP hypocrisy of pretending to care about the 99.99% need to be tended. It takes a lot of bandwidth to keep up a benign front, especially when you need to think of yourself as caring about anyone other than yourself and your cronies.
With this liberation will come exposure that cannot be denied. Trump's unique manifestation of leadership has been quite empowering insofar as allowing many in the GOP to come out of the closet in a variety of ways. Although he lost, for example, "Judge" Moore's honesty in wanting to repeal amendments 11-27 to the US constitution has doubtlessly mirrored the private thoughts of many other GOP politicians. Antes Trump, one couldn't just come out and say they wanted to return to the Antebellum South.
What this could mean is that the many conflicts Trump is engendering may provoke the polity in general to wake-up and stand-up for that they really believe in. It may be wishful thinking and we may be in for some real pain, but Trump's asunder provocations may ultimately work out for the best.
everything Trump touches turns to dung...yes, sad reality is US has never been an honest broker of Peace. Dancing puppets, sold to greed. Ignorance rains, reigns...
Like many of the extreme clerics of fundamentalism, Moore is a self-anointed caricature who (to use another folksy saying) is "all hat and no cattle."
I believe these people border on some kind of a psychosis that fuels grandiosity.
It must have been tough for Trump's predecessors to keep so firm a lid on Palestinian aspirations while appearing to be even handed, particularly in the face of the plethora of UN resolutions and simmering world opinion. The mantra that it was up to the Israelis and Palestinians to resolve their differences no longer has the slightest credibility, if it ever did. The proper arbitrator has always been the UN; no one else is qualified. Netanyahu knows this which is doubtless why he regards the UN as wickedly anti-Israel; he would probably like to accuse it of anti-Semitism but that might be a bridge too far even for him. Trump can't have the slightest intention of maintaining the status quo since it requires talents he doesn't possess. References to Putin the chess player might usefully be balanced by looking at Trump the golf player. Golf is an activity devoid of strategy. You don't even need another player, except to determine who's better, or settle a bet; each stroke is a challenge of its own and the only way to play it is as well as you can. The world is accustomed to diplomacy and unaccustomed to the conduct of international relations without it. However, Putin, Xi, Macron and so on have twigged, as has Kim Jong-Un, and the others are getting there. What this means if that others can increasingly take the initiatives where they used to defer to the US, and that may well apply to Palestine as well.
Trump's niceness to Netanyahu and the Crown Prince could be in the manner of a Greek bearing gifts. His Administration, while happy to move the US embassy there does not actually acknowledge Jerusalem to be in Israel. link to state.gov (1st exchange with AP's Matt Lee.)
The US was NEVER an honest broker at any point. Never.
Why did it take these Muslims nations so long to admit to it?
They cannot have it both ways, and should stop their dealings with the US, to show their disapproval for the way the Palestinians were stabbed in the back. From one President to another, the support for Israel, by aid, giving them weapons (used mostly to kil civilians), and the unwavering support at the UN by vetoes, whenever the UN wanted to pass a resolution condemning Israel's human rights violations, went on, and anyone could see that the US was complicit in the occupation, the land grabs, the mowing of the lawn, the collective punishment, and the civilian deaths. Are the Muslim nations feeling betrayed now?
It is time these Muslim nations did the right thing for the Palestinians, and recognized their statehood, and they should be given long overdue rights, dignity, and freedom. To hell with the US and Israel, if they object to it, after all they act like they are above international laws, and it is time the world treated them like pariah nations.
Now that the the rest of the world has shown it's anger against this idiotic move by Trump, to hand Jerusalem (getting nothing in return) over to an occupier, the Palestinians should ask them to support their statehood. I am sure many will.
NOTE the FCC ONLY controls the USA portion of the GLOBAL internet, so other countries that value the Internet as a national resource rather than a golden calf to be milked will continue to have fast, inexpensive access to most of the world's knowledge which is stored outside the USA.
BTW - I suspect that non-USA sources will "borrow" USA content and make it available for free to the rest of the world, so only Americans will have to pay.
As I noted, other countries see the internet as a national resource so when USA information sources try to charge non-USA users or stop the flow of data to alternative sources outside the USA, they will encounter governments that will laugh in their faces.
Once again, republican government screws Americans and lowers their standard of living.
Why would anyone that wants good future ever vote republican?
FYI - in the REAL WORLD anti-missile systems have a huge failure rate due to basic physics.
Basically, shooting down a missile is like shooting a bullet with another bullet over a one mile distance. Even a 0.001% error can cause the two to miss each other.
Yes both missiles are more "intelligent" than a bullet, BUT the physics prevent flight path changes that cause too many forces on either missile.
An easy method to get an attack missile through an anti-missile barrier is to have multiple intelligent warheads such that even if on or two warheads are miraculously destroyed others live on to destroy targets.
While anti-missile systems can somewhat deal with multiple warheads, that just means that half a dozen very, very expensive anti-missile missiles have to be used every time. Because anti-missile missiles have to be extremely "intelligent " to have any chance of working they cost as much as ten times as each missile they are trying to destroy. That is, the attacker can fire off ten missiles for the same cost as the defender's single missile. and even if one of the ten is destroyed, the other nine fly right by and destroy stuff very accurately.
Note that an Israeli "Iron Dome" battery has ONLY 60 missiles (US$40k each) and once they are all fired, the battery is just a couple of dead trailers until the battery is reloaded (a several hour process). Israel has between 10 and 15 operational batteries. That is, Israel can ONLY stop a MAXIMUM of 900 missiles. BUT there is the "slight" problem that the iDF has documented that there are over 50000 missiles pointed at Israel.
KSA is extremely foolish to think anti-missile systems, that have a long history of FAILURE, can protect its citizens. They would do far better to NEGOTIATE with their opponents and sign treaties, but their egos and regressive religion prevent that.
This sort of arrangement, where there are two sovereign states, with an open border between them, and close co-operation economically and in other ways, is often called a confederation. Since we are starting with two states, such an arrangement is essential, at least as a transitional arrangement while the two parties work out an agreement on their future together. My view is that a full union will be more appropriate in the long run, for reasons which I explain in the the One-State-Two-Nations Proposal.
One point on which I differ with you is the question of the border. The Green Line gives 78% of the land to Israel, and 22% to Palestine. Given that the Jewish and Arab populations are roughly equal in number, this would be an injustice to the Palestinians of monumental proportion, and could not lead to a contiguous and viable Palestinian state. Palestine needs much more territory than that, which can come from the Negev.
"Observers believe these initiatives [like the destruction of Sur] aim to kill two birds with one stone: a highly valuable area is redeveloped, boosting local revenues and property values and lining developers’ pockets; and an opponent is literally marginalised, moved to housing on the urban periphery. In the case of Okmeydani, it’s Alevis, Kurds, and leftists. Next up is Sur and its Kurdish residents, along with a smattering of Assyrians, Yazidis and Armenians."
That's really true. The cowboy hat is the symbol of Good Ol' Days American identity. It might explain why so many Whites who grew up in the 1950s somehow conflate their childhood Golden Age not with New Deal policies but with the Gilded Age that coincided with the Wild West; half the shows on TV were Westerns and the suburban "pioneers" were practically living a second fantasy life as cowboys and settlers. The real Black cowboys were coded out of existence but the hats were coded White for Good, Black for Evil.
All of which means, a White oligarch or theocrat can wear a cowboy hat, like Reagan or Bush Junior, and immediately signal that he's a tribal chauvinist who will take the side of his "people" over all others. Which is the only real problem Christian fundamentalists have with Moslem fundementalists; they are a rival tribe contending with our tribe for global control of resources and it is assumed that their version of Judeo-Christian-Moslem patriarchy is rigged to favor brown folks just as the Christian version is expected to be rigged to favor Whites.
Women have always had a hard time getting their stories of assault taken seriously. As noted, the man sets it up so there are no independent witnesses, and thus it's a "he said, she said" case. Then, more normal men frequently refuse to believe a man could possibly act that way, "She has to be lying!"
At this particular moment, it seems that women are finally being heard! Yet now, they're criticized for "waiting so long." This is a heads up to younger, more technically-savvy women: DOCUMENTATION. Phone video. Take advantage of any surveillance cams, preferrably with mics. Let there be no doubt.
Moore isn't like an Iranian theocrat. He is alleged to have dated girls in their early teens, or to have pursued them for that purpose whereas the Iranian theocrats absolutely condemn any dating. They permit marriage of early teens but not dating.
The average age of marriage for women in Iran is 23 overall, and 25 in urban cities. And while on paper it may be 13 (with the parents and courts permission), it is extremely rare. In the rare instances that it does occur, it’s in rural areas amongst farmers.
In the US however half of the states 25/50 don’t even have a minimum age of marriage. Girls as young as 10 are legally married in the USA using such laws. link to independent.co.uk
If large floating complexes can be made benign to the local wildlife, this is something that changes the rules of economics. There's an old saying that real estate is valuable because they can't manufacture more land. In fact, we do something worse; developers steal land from nature and so many of us are complicit in the economy that they've built and control through bought politicians that we act helpless when records floods destroy our cities because the water encounters only concrete.
Real estate speculation is the foundation of the value of the American economy. The factories we've lost have been replaced by overbuilding of homes and malls with no clear future. Educated progressives flee the bigoted exurbs for cities, only to find that by doing so they've run up rents on overcrowded apartments so high that the residents, especially of color, are driven out. The fracking boom continues because every voter living on the shale fields thinks their little piece of land will get bought, and that will make up for the earthquakes.
If we can safely live on the water and extract energy from there, we can collapse the real estate bubble and destroy the power of developers and rentiers over our politics. We can expand our cities with affordable housing and drain our real swamp - rural and suburban America - of its poor masses yearning to be free.
This post complements yesterdays, insofar as backward attitudes toward knowledge exist is both religions. Any 'good' (functional) religion will include the self-serving justifications and empowerment needed for survival.
Modernity appears to be the real threat to those everywhere who are unequipped to adapt or unwilling to do so. There has been a enormous rural to urban shift around the world over recent years, including in the US, and people with the mental capital, in terms of brains and/or the disposition to adapt, are leaving their cousins in the provinces behind to starve.
As the man said, they are left with only their guns and religion.
Why would Israelis ever agree to be entrust their sovereignty to an Arab-majority parliament? And even if the umbrella parliament has no jurisdiction over issues of cultural identity in the two subregions, it would at least control the military, right?
I dimly recall seeing a blue-sky proposal sort of like this, except with Jordan incorporated as a third component territory.
Note that Trump has announced that the words "climate change" have been excised from the National Security Statement.
"The Federalist website apparently was privy to an advance copy of a draft of the speech and says it will oppose efforts to reduce the burning of oil, gas and coal for energy. “US leadership is indispensable to countering an anti-growth energy agenda that is detrimental to US economic and energy security interests,” the website quoted the document as saying. “Given future global energy demand, much of the developing world will require fossil fuels, as well as other forms of energy, to power their economies and lift their people out of poverty.”
Note that this implies that it is impossible for you to improve your economy by reducing the burning of fossil fuels. A dogmatic absolute. Not letting the market decide. It also implies that national security is all about greed regardless of other consequences.
link to cleantechnica.com
Don't forget India, Japan and Turkey on the "trending ethnotyranny" list.
I wouldn't say there even is a Free World coalition as of this year. The democracies, without the US, are a bunch of sidekicks with no hero. And they were far too happy being sidekicks, looking away as our nation engaged in an increasing number of irrational acts over the last few decades.
We are probably past the point where we can come out of this with a democracy as the world's leader. The question now is China's strategy of leadership: will it just be a more outward-looking corporate dictatorship than Russia and the US, or will it try to engage the world on a level deeper than economic domination?
It is true that the seeds of fascism already have been sewn. This looting of land and people embodied in R Tax Bill is evidence that the Rs and backers foresee unrest and reversal, and are trying to take what more they can as fast as they can. When more pain kicks in, as it inevitably will, the excuses are already built in. It will be the fault of the immigrants and minorities, and those of a non-traditionalist cultural points of view. Clinton represented a last chance at fragile consensus. Instead of rule with message of inclusion, there is rule by division, cultural warfare. Without corporate welfare in 2008, there could have been broader unrest. Back then Rs already had been courting danger, with appeals to nationalism and prejudice. Such appeals are even more explicit now. It also is more likely that economic distress emanating from this tax bill will generate unrest, this in the near future, years not decades. The forces of plutocracy are poised to deal with this likelihood, to repress opposition, and to embark upon a kind of warfare that is more than just cultural. It may not even take unrest to unleash some repression, as the fear of the sheer consequences of the vote could well be enough.
I think no you still wrong prove it
The threat that President Trump and his incoherent National Security Strategy, which was somewhat different from the text that he was reading from the teleprompter, pose to America and to the world lies in the following factors:
1- His obsession to undermine the achievements of his predecessors (mainly one predecessor), accusing them of “disastrous trade deals”, the “disastrous, weak, and incomprehensibly bad deal with Iran”, “allowing terrorists such as ISIS to gain control of vast parts of territory all across the Middle East”, etc.
2- His unabashed praise for his own amazing achievements, boasting how single-handedly he has defeated ISIS; of course with no mention of the Russian bombing, and the contribution of Syrian, Iranian, Iraqi, and Hezbollah forces fighting ISIS on the ground.
3- How he has renewed “our friendships in the Middle East and partnered with regional leaders to help drive out terrorists and extremists, cut off their financing, and discredit their wicked ideology.” He seems to have forgotten that in his campaign speeches he accused those very states, especially Saudi Arabia, of organizing and financing terrorism.
4- His maniacal hostility to Iran, which has been mentioned no less than 12 times in the text, linking her to North Korea as a rogue state. He accuses Iran of being “the main sponsor of terrorism in the world”, and “developing more capable ballistic missiles and has the potential to resume its work on nuclear weapons that could threaten the United States and our partners.” This is the country that was prepared to give up its entire nuclear program in 2003, and finally reached an agreement with all five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany to mothball her nuclear program for 10-15 years and even after the so-called “sunset clauses” will remain a member of the NPT and the Additional Protocol, subject to continued, unprecedented inspections.
5- His sudden, unexpected outburst against an alleged ally Pakistan, stating: “The United States continues to face threats from transnational terrorists and militants operating from within Pakistan”, and issuing the following threat: “We will insist that Pakistan take decisive action against militant and terrorist groups operating from its soil.”
6- His dismissal of the Arab-Israeli conflict as “an irritant preventing peace and prosperity in the region.” With such a lack of understanding of this complex conflict, it is clear that he will not be able to propose any solution to it.
7- No mention of Russian interference in the American election! His only complaint against China and Russia was that they “challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity. They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence.” Presumably he expects other countries not to compete with America and not to develop their militaries or economies while the United States is spending $1.5 trillion upgrading her nuclear arsenal.
8- No mention of climate change!
In short, the main problem with this so-called strategy is that it is a collection of angry and harsh outbursts without any coherence and without any strategy to deal with the real problems in the contemporary world. This is what poses the greatest threat to America and the rest of the world.
The problem is your use of "tons." Lebanon has 4 million citizens and 25,000 Hizbullah fighters. That would be equivalent to a massive army of 2 million US fighters under arms with training, medium and heavy weaponry, and line of command, twice as large as the US military. Doesn't exist.
While the warmongers define their misdirected meaning of the word ‘jihad’ these same evil spirited war profiteers bring a new 21st Century meaning to the title of ‘Western Crusader’. It’s the best these destroyers of life and all that’s good can come with since they loss their ‘Iron Curtain Communist’, so we citizens need to adjust our crosshairs to see our new designated enemy. Funny how what we are protecting ourselves from is an evil from within, but no instead lets pick a new group to place the blame on for the threat to our American way of life. This method of sorting out the good from the bad, and choosing who will be among our most valued allies, has instead brought America to this lonely place where all empires come to die.
The allies about whom Der Furor speaks are actual or effectively fascist and racist or otherwise violently exclusionary states like Hungary, Russia, China, Poland, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. These and others are all models spawned and encouraged by the worst instincts and practices of the United States and which had leaned or become fascistic even before Trump came along. Now Trump's America is its ersatz leader and inspiration.
This group is also the core of an already developing future fascist alliance that will ascend to an effective political supremacy across 'The West' (with 'junior' allies elsewhere) and begin waging utter militarism and outright wars and economic sabotage and re-exploitation across the world against states attempting to remain democratic, including against China also, against which I think the United States will turn at some point.
Germany is more or less the new leader of what's been called The Free World. France still keeps its own fascist cadres in check too. Merkel is weakened politically now though thanks to Trump's shunning and Germany's own longstanding burgeoning fascist underbelly and it will likely soon cede governing to a further 'right' government, which will be only one step removed from a checkmate against democratic institutions internationally, as Britain is already 'right'-oriented and further shrinking from a democratic role.
This, to me, represents a very possible immediate future. It's later than we think. This scenario is not 100% inevitable at this moment, but I'd guess it's well over 50% and rising fast (like a Hitler salute), given the hatefully blind sociopathic wrongheadedness of those in charge of the United States and those countries and of this entire mess.
Also, his pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord makes me feel safer already!
Aside from misconceptions about terrorists, what is depressing is the absence of any interest in seeking cooperative solutions to myriad global issues. I don't believe Russia and China are threats to the US although I see they may be so to US empire ambitions, but those are unsustainable anyway. This Trump mindset is increasingly forcing other nations to look to tackling issues without the US, something they cannot really do since the space left where the US should be cannot otherwise be filled. The rest of the world can try, of course, but efforts lacking full global collaboration can lead to devastating unintended consequences. The real long term problem may be less what the US is doing, trampling all over the world, bad as that is, but what it is not doing.
What proportion of the 'Middle 40' vote Republican?
Why do they continue to vote that way when it's clearly not in their interests to do so?
"....where do they get their funding and arms from."
Answer: Iran, largely via assistance in arms, training, and funding from the al-Quds Force; multinational pharmaceutical companies also help, per allegations in recent federal lawsuit.
Some links:
link to cfr.org
link to foxnews.com
"......who allocates them land and property to to have a base etc....(?)"
Answer: Iraqi militias, the Mahdi Army for example, administer their own police force and a court system imposing religious law as well as a social welfare network to support the population it controls.
the consequences of foisting an unpopular candidate on the opposition party just snowball.
war loosens the strictures of accountability,
which is why it is so badly wanted by politicians and Generals.
And a few dangerous soldiers.
As much as I despise these authoritarian regimes, I think their attitude is similar to Mafia bosses who want to carve up the world between them and then cash in. But as we saw in Orwell's 1984, a stable division of the world between sufficiently cynical dictators may be the worst possible outcome, since they can coordinate to manufacture any war to keep their people under control. An awful lot of horrible things have happened in eras of multipolarity.
Not necessarily. We have tons of armed militias in the USA, despite a strong well established centralized government.
Both siderism has not been proven bankrupt to me. You list a number of things that the democrats are defending. From my perspective that list is made up of things that the Democratic Party is only pretending to defend.
From my perspective not all Democrats are in on the con. None the less the con of two parties competing with each other is an extraordinarily good con. The con is so good because it is very hard to imagine the details of how the con is actually coordinated in an apparently changing environment.
E V E N if I am overly syndical and American democracy really is more real than the World Wide Wrestling Federation it would still be true that if some people tried to arrest only Republicans and or ban only the Republican Party they would meet even more resistance than if they banned both parties. The first ban would be viewed as an underhanded partisan attack by godless commies against the off spring of America's greatest generation, attempting to eventually turn America in to a provence of Russia, or Iran, or maybe even North Korea.
If the second ban were actually enacted, I would be willing to bet 100 dollars, which is a lot of money for me, that this ban would be viewed by almost everyone as an even handed intervention by authorities that are going to restore the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, or John F. Kennedy.
War is bestial because it kills compassion and that's what's left without it. What militias do when their primary task is over is an ancient problem. Only a citizen army raised for finite domestic purpose has the ability to dissolve back into the society from which it emerged. The Romans reflected this with their deity Janus who presided over the beginning and ending of conflict and whose temple doors were symbolically opened when men went to war, and closed when they returned home. In Europe, the Thirty Years war was one of the most brutal examples of the devastation foot-loose militia inflict. Something quite soulless happens to men in war. (vide the German novel Simplicius Simplicissimus link to en.wikipedia.org. We tend to obscure those truths by isolating examples and pinning them on individuals or specific groups. The prospect is almost more daunting than the war since it can lead to directionless chaos.
Trump and his posse are a gift to Russia and China and anyone else who has world domination aspirations to replace the US/
Militias and cartels are symptom of weak government. Egypt in the Nile Valley has none
I not sure I follow entirely the argument that these militias are a separate entity. For instance: where do they get their funding and arms from? Further, who allocates them land and property to have a base etc. There is also the matter of communications and strategy they would need to operate effectively. Militias are essentially factional based and are usually employed in fighting those who are not part of their clan. More often than not, its resistance to the army (the government) that has brought about the formation of the militias in the first place. I suspect that as long as there is racial and religious intolerance in the middle East there will always be tension and conflict with militias being vital to the various factions.
Nice article.
Lots of reasons to be vegetarian.
This is only partially accurate.
Even though Puerto Rican residents were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917 by an Act of Congress and were immediately subject to a military draft that year, Puerto Ricans do NOT vote in general presidential elections nor do they nominate Electors to the Electoral College.
That said, both the Democratic and Republican party organizations hold primary elections for the purpose of sending delegates to the national party conventions every four years - so Puerto Ricans have a say in who is nominated from these parties.
The article tries to make hay out of something that was obvious all along: Russia was protecting its interests in Syria, which includes a friendly regime and Russian military bases. Those interests have not changed. Therefore, it should be no surprise that Russia will continue to keep forces in the region and will augment those forces if needed.
The similarity to the U.S. actions in Iraq should be noted. We "pulled out" of Iraq as the status of forces agreement required. But with the ramp up of the conflict against ISIS in Mosul and elsewhere, our forces went back in. I think it is safe to say that the U.S. is in Iraq to stay.
Excuse my lack of knowledge and dyslexia.
I believe that the American voters are not going to counter the sick and dangerous control that Trump has unless the corrupt news media including PBS (Public Bull Shat) is replaced with intelligent, truthful and wise news and information, and that the ignorant, non-wise and gutless Electoral College electors for each state are replaced with wise and intelligent electors that would never vote in a known woman abuser, a liar and a possible angry, manic depressive individual that tweets nonsense.
Shouldn't there be written and oral exams by the government for all government positions including the President and vice president of the United States?
I read one of Trump's tweets and was total amazed at the ignorance shown. Doesn't the President and other government officials consult with experts on their staff before making public remarks, decisions or submitting executive orders to avoid making mistakes - England will arrest Trump if he lands in England.
I am no fan of the Dems - I have voted Green and I've voted Nader, but dammit, I am now done with that after the past election. Hillary was far from perfect, but nowhere near the menace that Trump represents.
Both-siderism was proven a bankrupt way of looking at the world last year. If you think both sides are equally nefarious then at this point I just think that is some sort of hipster stance. You don't prove that you are cool by being cynical - you just prove that you are foolish and willing to wreak enormous damage for the sake of an empty point (see, at this late date, Glen Greenwald).
Yeah, Dems have failed on a lot of fronts - I am not fond of them and their support for corporate America and forever wars. But you defend health care, a diverse society, women's rights, the climate, academic freedom, research and science, and a relatively healthy economy with the political party you have, not the one you would like to have.
I've lived in other countries I consider civilized. If I had the resources I would exit the US tomorrow to escape what I see as inevitable fascism, or worse, civil unrest. I am hoping that by the time that happens I will.
We are all of us running out the clock. And by the way, screw the concerns of Republicans - after all, didn't they just say that to all of us with their lethal tax bill, the first big step in gutting Social Security and Medicare.
What do you call Paul Ryan in prison? A good start. Hell, I've paid into Social Security for 40 years and now he wants to take it away - let's all make a massive citizen's arrest for theft.
I will say no
They can vote for president.
This is the kind of news that is totally ignored by the US mainstream media, which instead spends days discussing the latest tweet by our demented and bigoted President Pig.
Dear Grumpy Great Grandpa,
If people who agree with your comment about outlawing the Repulbican party were to gain 5 seats on the Supreme Court and 67 seats in the Senate and 300 seats in the House, and 34 govenorships and the Republican Party was outlawed there would still be a civil war in America.
If on the other hand BOTH of the major corrupt pariies were outlawed there would be a huge sigh of relief in America from hundreds of millions of people and everyone would go to back to work just as if nothing important had happened.
Yes it is true that realistically, currently, only the Democratic Party would have a chance in hell of getting those type of results in through a democratic process. They certainly would not outlaw themselves.
But if we wanted to imagine a situation in which the Republicans could be outlawed, say a massive victory by the Greens, or Libertarians, this winning power would have to outlaw both parties.
If we were to indulge ourselves, and smoke a lot of pot, we might imagine a scenaria in which perhaps at some point in the future the vote is very divided up and through luck or perhaps even cheating the Greens or Libertarians achieve these formal results. if that were the case and the new leadership wanted to actually act on your suggestion Republicans would be enraged that their party alone had been outlawed. But if the Democratic Party were simultaneously outlawed Republicans would be molified, and vice versa.
Is it not true that the overwhelming majority of the voters do not vote for someone that they like they vote against someone that they do not like.
Last I heard, Costa Rica plans to a carbon neutral country by 2022 or so.
Not so incidentally, a friend who has been doing environmental work in Costa Rica since the 1970s is not so happy about the extent of hydroelectricity there as it has some very negative ecological consequences.
i love to have juan cole to count on ALL THE TIME. where else can we go when we need really solid info and opinions?
With crapitalism, ain't ever goin' happen.
Can people whose legal residence is on Puerto Rico, vote in the presidential election year, for choice of US president? Does our constitution prohibit that vote?
Jesus, the Russians have their own Blackwater.
We really are living in Orwell's world of functionally identical tyrannies dividing up the planet between them.
I'm going to end up cheering for Chinese Blackwater because those mercenaries will be working for the least corrupt empire.
America imposes its prejudices on the world.
Consider that 100 years ago, the Arabs were the heroes of the American media, thanks to Lowell Thomas' romantic reporting of Lawrence's Arab rebel army fighting the Turks. Jews, on the other hand, were widely despised as radical conspirators and unassimilable aliens because of the flood of rural Eastern European Jews fleeing the Czar straight into US ghettoes. If you'd taken a poll, maybe people would have said the Lebanese Arabs immigrating into Michigan were better Americans than the Jews.
Yet decades before that flood, Jews were relatively respected because that generation of Jews were middle-class Germans, such that a Jew served as Confederate Secretary of State.
So the "race" that creates problems in the USA right now is coded terrorist and radical and impossible to assimilate, and the one that (1) contributes to our capitalism with the least hassle or (2) stays in its exotic homeland so our media can spin romantic yarns about it, is considered worthy of human rights in a very abstract sense.
The Zionists figured this out and spent generations shaping the media narrative to seize the mantle of humanity away from Arabs. They had the choice of sharing that mantle instead as fellow Semites, but Jabotinsky admitted all those years ago that the goal was to do to the Arabs what the Americans had done to the Indians. That Civilizing Settlers vs. Barbaric Redskins narrative was a natural sell in America.
I think it needs to be said much more forcefully that the GOP is by no means "latently" white supremacist or racist. Given the historic trajectory of the party:
1. There was Barry Goldwater's opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
2. Nixon's Southern Strategy.
3. Reagan starting his campaign in 1980 in Philadelphia Mississippi where civil rights workers were murdered with the help of local police in 1964, and his coded terms about "welfare queens" and "young bucks" abusing food stamps.
4. Lee Atwater, Willie Horton, and George H. W. Bush's gruesome 1988 campaign (that now looks, post Trump, like a children's tea party).
5. Bush II's response to Katrina (despite his relatively diverse cabinet).
6. And let's not forget the campaign by various surrogates in the right wing hate industry who spent the years after Bush whipping up animus among the base whose head collectively exploded at the election of a black president - birtherism anyone?
7. The GOP embrace of a creature who started his campaign with openly bigoted remarks about Mexicans, which easily morphed into equally discriminatory remarks against Muslims, people of color, and women.
I am sorry to be repetitive, but it simply cannot be said enough: At some point the GOP must be outlawed as a white supremacist hate group. And we might add, given their standard bearer in the White House, that there are now further grounds for outlawing the party as one that is frankly and blatantly anti-constitutional and pro-fascist (see, e.g., questioning the first amendment, attempting to undermine a free press, an independent judiciary, ignoring the emoluments clause, the response to Charlottesville, the spider Bannon still squirting his poison into the king's ear, not to mention dereliction of duty in providing for the common defense or promoting the general welfare). Moreover, if they manage to strip millions of health care with that sham piece of "legislation" known as the tax bill, then hell, we can add in crimes against humanity (since countless Americans will die for want of health care) - in fact, why not use Puerto Rico as a pretext, since the on-going disaster is one manufactured by the GOP.
In my books there are no good Republicans: if you stand with a bigoted anti-constitutionalist authoritarian, to me that pretty much makes you a bigoted anti-constitutionalist authoritarian, whether that is a member of Congress, the White House, or just one of their ignorant supporters in the street, and they have long since shown their truest nature.
And as always: pars republicana delenda est!
Given that the Governor's party is considered the more conservative one other than its advocacy for statehood and is therefore the GOP's natural ally, you might also say that this proves Republicans take the votes of conservative people of color for granted. But of course, these days you can be as conservative as Reagan or the Bushes and still be denounced by the President and the ideological priesthoods of all the dominant factions of the Right as a Commie.
Australia has small island territories that are too small to have separate representation but the principle has been established that Australian citizens living on Australian territory should be represented in the Federal Parliament. Accordingly they vote for, and are represented by, a member of the House of Representatives and two Senators for either the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory (equivalent of DC.) The US should have full Congressional representation for the millions of Puerto Rican Americans but for smaller island territories perhaps the Australian model could be considered.
If Puerto Ricans didn't speak Spanish and have brown skin Congress and Trump would approve of their existence.
"latently"
How polite toward potus and con-gress in this life/death confrontation!
Indict & Impeach - top to bottom - bullys and murderers all.
Some time ago I wrote in my blog questioning, do people still watch the news? Because I don't ....I just choose what I want to watch on my computer and cast it to my TV screen.
My TV box is only useful to warm up my cat paws :)
So at last I don't have to watch advertisement and elongated news session that have no news...
Hence, cooperates got to think now of innovative ways to control our brains and pockets
My Parents were researchers in an American University for 2-3 years during the late 60s
They told me that keeping the American people ignorant is a policy. You can drive ignorant the way you choose.
Little that they know that the western liberalisation wave that taken over the MENA region since the end of 19th century used the same policy ..... that went into stages and we are harvesting the results of ignorance with so much suffering
granted this is just a thought experiment,
but until we outgrow this limiting concept of a hugely interconnected and interdependent nation-wide grid,
then T&D costs are never going to permit free electricity.
.
Rumsfeld's decision to substitute Mercenaries for disciplined uniformed infantrymen cost the US military the war in Iraq. The Dogs brutally slayed almost 2 million innocents, compared to fewer than 100,000 killed by uniformed Soldiers and Marines on the ground, and fewer than 250,000 killed from the air by the US Air Force.
Our stated purpose was to win over the local population; that goal was rendered unattainable through the use of Mercs.
.
But the Russians were not in Syria to win hearts or minds;
they were there to destroy ISIS.
Letting lawless, undisciplined wanton killers loose on the civilian populations did not hurt their war aims.
As far as I could tell,
there were almost no Mercenaries supporting the US military in Syria. Maybe we learned our lesson ?
.
It isn't only Assad that should be grateful to Russia. If the USA had had its way, we would have Al Baghdadi in Damascus.
The cost of the technology to harvest and store energy will never be "free," but after the probably very low initial technology cost, the ongoing costs will be very close to "free."
Why aren't we investigating Israeli meddling in US politics?
Russia collusion farce - true or untrue, is the ultimate in "sock-puppetry" to distract.
Thank you for telling the truth.It just breaks my heart knowing what is being done to SO many innocent lives with the help of American weapons.These people ' our government 'have NO shame.They go to bed every night not having to worry that a bomb could destroy their home and kill the people they love.....
Hopefully, twice-tossed-from-the-bench former judge - the accused paedophile and mall cruising lecher Roy Moore saddles-up old Kayla and rides off into the sunset waving his little girly gun and flipping the bird.
Once he concedes his LOSS.
I wonder what the Booze Lobby will have
to say about this on FOX Real True News.
In Canada, medical cannabis has been legal for a long time and on 1 July 2018, recreational cannabis will become legal in all provinces and territories. It will be sold in government run or regulated stores (like alcohol) and in most places, individuals may, in addition, possess up to 4 live plants.
In 2013, at a book signing at the 92nd Street Y in New York, 71-year-old Martha Stewart, the homemaking perfectionist, said she once saw a young couple smoking "sloppy joints" and remarked "Of course I know how to roll a joint."
As Bob Dylan wrote in 1964 and oftan sang, "For the times, they are a-changin'."
Anyone who is not following these developments closely, as elites endeavor to consolidate their control over individuals, should be monitoring techdirt.com for as long as they and other websites IC are able to continue.
The empowerment of fascism in its variety of forms, is what techdirt tracks with depressing professionalism and thoroughness. There are lessons IC might take from them in its current re-invention.
This particularly pertinent post shows the total lack of good faith with which Ajit Pai and his cronies are manipulating events, showing them mocking the people they ostensibly serve and actually reviling in the maliciousness of their agenda. Inflammatory as it is, back-out to their homepage to get more detailed documentation of what the new FCC is doing and other developments along these lines.
link to techdirt.com
Another reaction to the original IC post is that there are bound to be numerous technical work-arounds to what is very much a determined plot. Things such as VPN's can evolve to provide more privacy and maintain access, but it will be at a cost and that is the intention. Pressure will also doubtlessly increase on the technical sophistication to use such tools. This would all be part of a plan which has to be seen clearly for what it is.
The point of barriers being created for the purpose of (no other word for it) subjugation, is what to keep in focus.
The restraint demonstrated in this post is admirable.
Good work.
There will be many distinct forces urging moves like this. We see the ones that touch us most closely and that's natural but they are trees in a wood. There appears today to be a nisus urging us away from the bigger picture; tasks are broken down and operatives can function without knowing what final product they are engaged in making, science studies particles too small for the human eye or even mind, historians concentrate on elements so specialist only another specialist could read them; when these works began to dominate a well known University Publisher's list I imagined one day a vastly expensive study of Gender Ambiguity in Third Century Dacia. It seems somewhat less fanciful today. If we consider the three best known dystopian novels, Zamyatin’s We, Huxley's Brave New World, and Orwell's 1984, which are all set in futures when dystopia is firmly established, it may be salutary to think what it must have been like to live in the periods when it was still evolving, when enveloping darkness might still be dismissed as just a passing cloud.
Providers can now parcel out discreet functions selected by users to bill separately and in addition to on-going usage fees.
Likely targets are extemporaneous actions such as SEARCH, email and TEXT. Social media will get fee portals to access. Censorship is likely since it has been set into motion at the Cabinet level of the Trump administration.
Forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
link to washingtonpost.com
"Trump did this" ... and so much more!
I'm sure Jeff Sessions will be all over this. He's been champing at the bit to liberalize American marijuana policy.
Sorry, I'm back now. Climate change, Jerusalem, marijuana - one wonders on how many other issues will the United States be out of step with the world before Reichspräsident Strumpf and Vice Ayatollah Pence leave office.
According to the Zionists, evangelicals, and US leaders in the White House and Congress, Palestinians (and Muslims), cannot resist, protest, or make demands, when they are occupied, shocked and awed, blockaded, have their lands stolen, homes demolished, families killed by Western and Israeli bombs, and if they do, they are referred to as "terrorists".
"Never again" is for the Jews, but when it comes to the Muslims, it is "again and again". The Palestinians have every right to be angry, and disappointed, by Trump's back stabbing policies, and perhaps this is a reality check that the US will NEVER be honest broker, and they have to re-think their plans to get their statehood, freedom, and lands back. The rest of the civilized world, must support them now.
Why is that scoundrel in law quiet now? Jared has done his bit for the motherland, and Netanyahu must be thrilled.
great and amazing project
Mine too!
I'm sure there are many like me for whom the advantages of net neutrality/internet freedom were not obvious, until now.
Thanks, Juan, for this clear explanation of how replacing net neutrality with corporate privilege will stifle free expression of dissenting opinions.
Side Point: What constitutes "Jerusalem"? For example, "after Israel conquered the West Bank in 1967, it expanded East Jerusalem’s borders more than tenfold, to seventy square kilometers. In the process, Israel incorporated twenty-eight Palestinian towns and villages that had never been considered part of Jerusalem before, some of which are actually closer to Bethlehem or Ramallah than to the Old City.” link to detailedpoliticalquizzes.wordpress.com
Elon Musk might be a game changer with his 4,425 satellites enabling phone calls and data to the whole World...
"In November, SpaceX filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to launch 4,425 satellites into orbits between 690 and 825 miles above the Earth. “Once fully deployed, the SpaceX System will pass over virtually all parts of the Earth’s surface and therefore, in principle, have the ability to provide ubiquitous global service,” SpaceX said in its application. “Every point on the Earth’s surface will see, at all times, a SpaceX satellite.”
SpaceX will first deploy 1,600 satellites to offer Internet access in the U.S., and the rest to expand coverage around the world. It’s not clear whether SpaceX will offer access directly or through other companies like Google, which in 2015 participated in a $1 billion investment in SpaceX to help it build satellites." link to fortune.com
More than half the battle Jean-Ollivier is keeping just Americans ignorant. One wealthy nation of 326 million is enough to both fund and man the plutocracy's wars.
The end of net neutrality could be the last nail in the coffin of democracy. The press is already a bought out cheerleading section. One can count the number of real journalists left with a solid MSM platform on the fingers of one hand. There used to be hundreds, just thirty years ago.
On the other hand, what the Russians have anything to do with this, I don't understand.
The American government is working very hard to make sure that Russia based media cannot reach Americans at all. The truth hurts. It's amazing that twenty five years after the end of the cold war that American media offer all the variety of opinion of Pravda and Western news organisations fear hard hitting, fearless Russian reporters.
"Even the most recent violence against the Rohingya is situated within decades of persecution that has seen their rights diminish and has left the community of more than one million largely stateless. The government and the Myanmar public have long labeled them as “Bengali interlopers” at worst and as “foreign guests” at best."
source : Foreign Affairs : The Myanmar Military's Legacy of Impunity How the Rohingya Crisis Fits a Historical Pattern
Seems that the persecution is now in view of the radar.
I wonder whether the FCC net neutrality killing is really relevant, as long as some countries (or rather their national or regional legislation) keeps the FCC rule's span within domestic boundaries.
Of course, I am not sure what the words 'national', 'regional', 'domestic' now mean in this field ...
The Pope had no response to this tragedy while in Myanmar just to appease the anti-Muslim Buddhists?
thanks so much, Philip!
thanks, Scott!
Most of the Muslim countries and many others have long recognised the State of Palestine.
The world does not care. These are dirt poor Muslims, and no one seems to want to hold those responsible for these war crimes, and horrible massacre of helpless people, accountable. The brutal military junta of Myanmar should be sanctioned, until they stop the rape, attacks, and the ethnic cleansing, and all aid to them, stopped. The nations that supply deadly weapons, and train these killers, like Israel, must also be held accountable. Israel has been interfering and manipulating nations like Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, and still do.
Happy to say Canada is four-square behind maintaining net freedom. I found you when you were on blogger Mr. Cole, I am eternally grateful for your daily dose of truth.
This isn't about money. This is the beginning of censorship as we have not know it in the U.S.A. A fascist, in my opinion, is the President of the U.S.A. and he is implementing his agenda. Here is another step.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has had a long history in the West Bank, even after militarily withdrawing from the region during the Six Day War in 1967.
The Kingdom of Jordan up to 1988 administered the West Bank simultaneously while the Israel Defense Forces occupied it, making welfare benefits available to those residents until the State of Palestine was declared on November 15, 1988.
West Bank Palestinians had received Jordanian passports and had unelected representatives hold seats in the Jordanian parliament. The declaration by the P.L.O. of statehood in 1988 supplanted Jordan administration of the West Bank.
Today Jordanian dinars, along with Israeli shekels and U.S. dollars are the predominant currencies used by the public in the West Bank.
The UN Special Rapporteur should have visited places like Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in SD. He would have seen hunger and cold, shabby housing, and no jobs within a hundred miles. What are these people to do?
Thanks Juan for everything you do. You got me through the Iraq war. Keep it up!
If Israeli hardliners looked into a mirror they would understand that the Biblical verse Proverbs (Mishle) 16:18 applies to them.
"Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall."
The original plan to have two states--one Jewish and one Palestinian--with an international city, Jerusalem (al-Quds), that would be a joint civil condominium shared by both states was a solution worthy of Soloman (peace be upon him). Such a joint capital could have two "burroughs", West Jerusalem (Jewish) and East Jerusalem (Palestinian), each with its own civil government (local council) and an "urban council" for joint, shared activities, with free passage for all citizens between them and a joint Christian, Muslim, Jewish religious council to protect the holy places and assure their accessibility to all. This would not prevent Israelis from considering the entire region to be their religious capital and to claim "ownership" from a religious (spiritual) point of view.
Today, the Israelis treat the Arab citizens of Israel as second class citizens and in doing so overlook their own rules since returning to the Holy Land.
On the basis of the position of the Meiri (Bet Habehirah, Bava Kama, 113b) recognizing both Muslims and Christians as monotheistic believers bound by the minimal moral code, the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi in Israel, Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kuk ruled (Iggeret 89; Mishpat-Cohen 63) that Muslims and Christians living in a predominant
Jewish society must be treated as gerim toshavim, i.e., with full civil liberties, just as Jews are treated.
One Orthodox Jewish movement, Naturei Karta, supports the Palestinians and disavows all Zionist claims to statehood in the Holy Land. According to them, "The Palestinians are the victims of the Zionist movement's moral blindness and obstinate refusal to take into account the existence of peoples other than themselves. The Palestinian people have a right to their homeland. And they have a right to financial restitution for property loss and damages inflicted upon them over the past decades."
"This sort of arrangement, where there are two sovereign states, with an open border between them, and close co-operation economically and in other ways, is often called a confederation....."
Agreed.
America began as a confederation and eventually adopted its Constitution in 1787 which created a federal government which had very limited powers in certain areas such as taxing and spending, raising an army, coining money etc. but eventually expanded through constitutional amendment and judicial rulings into a powerful central government that exists today. The European Union is doing the same thing to its member states.
Given the extensive distrust and acrimony between the Israeli government leadership and the Palestinian Authority, confederation is the best alternative as a starting point with a stronger federal governing body developing over time as the two sides ameliorate their relations toward eventual merger into a single state.
"One point on which I differ with you is the question of the border..........this would be an injustice."
My reasoning in adopting the "Green Line" is that it reflects the reality of disparate bargaining power between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority - in other words, granting meaningful autonomy to Palestinian Arabs will require a price - that price being exacted from the Palestinian Authority will likely take the form of land concessions to Israel approximating the Green Line borders with certain land swaps to reflect practical demographic realities. Currently the Palestinian Authority is a quisling government owing its existence to Israel; at worst, it has been compared to the Judenrat of the Warsaw Ghetto.
The economic damage to both sides has been staggering. The Israel Chamber of Commerce estimated that the Second Intifada cost Israel 25 to 35 billion dollars in losses. Social welfare program allocations in the Israeli government's budget have been scavenged to finance the ongoing occupation.
The proportionate economic damage to Palestinians has been even more extensive, highlighted by massive unemployment and child malnutrition in Gaza.
Ending the current occupation and implementation of an agreed-upon viable peace plan would likely increase the standard of living for citizens on both sides.
Thank you Professor Cole . Great reporting.
Fiction doesn’t always turn into reality, but in this case it’s halfway there already. So the odds are good that it will to a considerable degree. Look at the increasing proliferation of toll roads as an example. Who wants that?!
Thinking about it, this could be seen as a fresh breath of useful and ultimately positive honesty.
Whatever one's vision of the future they want to live in, it does no one any good denying the reality of what is going on, when denial only frustrates the natural dialect that should be playing out.
In this case, the US quitting its pretense of being anything other than Israel's lawyer and lackey allows everyone to see things more clearly for what they really are. Whatever lies ahead, we are closer to reaching an honest truth today then we were yesterday, when everyone was pretending the relationship between the US and Israel was anything other than what it really was. The cowardice of prior administrations really can be seen as having obstructed reaching an appropriate resolution to the conflict, whatever forces this particular move may yet unleash.
This is the upside to Trump in a number of other spheres as well. No longer does the GOP hypocrisy of pretending to care about the 99.99% need to be tended. It takes a lot of bandwidth to keep up a benign front, especially when you need to think of yourself as caring about anyone other than yourself and your cronies.
With this liberation will come exposure that cannot be denied. Trump's unique manifestation of leadership has been quite empowering insofar as allowing many in the GOP to come out of the closet in a variety of ways. Although he lost, for example, "Judge" Moore's honesty in wanting to repeal amendments 11-27 to the US constitution has doubtlessly mirrored the private thoughts of many other GOP politicians. Antes Trump, one couldn't just come out and say they wanted to return to the Antebellum South.
What this could mean is that the many conflicts Trump is engendering may provoke the polity in general to wake-up and stand-up for that they really believe in. It may be wishful thinking and we may be in for some real pain, but Trump's asunder provocations may ultimately work out for the best.
everything Trump touches turns to dung...yes, sad reality is US has never been an honest broker of Peace. Dancing puppets, sold to greed. Ignorance rains, reigns...
Like many of the extreme clerics of fundamentalism, Moore is a self-anointed caricature who (to use another folksy saying) is "all hat and no cattle."
I believe these people border on some kind of a psychosis that fuels grandiosity.
It must have been tough for Trump's predecessors to keep so firm a lid on Palestinian aspirations while appearing to be even handed, particularly in the face of the plethora of UN resolutions and simmering world opinion. The mantra that it was up to the Israelis and Palestinians to resolve their differences no longer has the slightest credibility, if it ever did. The proper arbitrator has always been the UN; no one else is qualified. Netanyahu knows this which is doubtless why he regards the UN as wickedly anti-Israel; he would probably like to accuse it of anti-Semitism but that might be a bridge too far even for him. Trump can't have the slightest intention of maintaining the status quo since it requires talents he doesn't possess. References to Putin the chess player might usefully be balanced by looking at Trump the golf player. Golf is an activity devoid of strategy. You don't even need another player, except to determine who's better, or settle a bet; each stroke is a challenge of its own and the only way to play it is as well as you can. The world is accustomed to diplomacy and unaccustomed to the conduct of international relations without it. However, Putin, Xi, Macron and so on have twigged, as has Kim Jong-Un, and the others are getting there. What this means if that others can increasingly take the initiatives where they used to defer to the US, and that may well apply to Palestine as well.
Trump's niceness to Netanyahu and the Crown Prince could be in the manner of a Greek bearing gifts. His Administration, while happy to move the US embassy there does not actually acknowledge Jerusalem to be in Israel. link to state.gov (1st exchange with AP's Matt Lee.)
The US was NEVER an honest broker at any point. Never.
Why did it take these Muslims nations so long to admit to it?
They cannot have it both ways, and should stop their dealings with the US, to show their disapproval for the way the Palestinians were stabbed in the back. From one President to another, the support for Israel, by aid, giving them weapons (used mostly to kil civilians), and the unwavering support at the UN by vetoes, whenever the UN wanted to pass a resolution condemning Israel's human rights violations, went on, and anyone could see that the US was complicit in the occupation, the land grabs, the mowing of the lawn, the collective punishment, and the civilian deaths. Are the Muslim nations feeling betrayed now?
It is time these Muslim nations did the right thing for the Palestinians, and recognized their statehood, and they should be given long overdue rights, dignity, and freedom. To hell with the US and Israel, if they object to it, after all they act like they are above international laws, and it is time the world treated them like pariah nations.
Now that the the rest of the world has shown it's anger against this idiotic move by Trump, to hand Jerusalem (getting nothing in return) over to an occupier, the Palestinians should ask them to support their statehood. I am sure many will.
All of which will lower the USA standard of living adn decrease USA wealth.
NOTE the FCC ONLY controls the USA portion of the GLOBAL internet, so other countries that value the Internet as a national resource rather than a golden calf to be milked will continue to have fast, inexpensive access to most of the world's knowledge which is stored outside the USA.
BTW - I suspect that non-USA sources will "borrow" USA content and make it available for free to the rest of the world, so only Americans will have to pay.
As I noted, other countries see the internet as a national resource so when USA information sources try to charge non-USA users or stop the flow of data to alternative sources outside the USA, they will encounter governments that will laugh in their faces.
Once again, republican government screws Americans and lowers their standard of living.
Why would anyone that wants good future ever vote republican?
FYI - in the REAL WORLD anti-missile systems have a huge failure rate due to basic physics.
Basically, shooting down a missile is like shooting a bullet with another bullet over a one mile distance. Even a 0.001% error can cause the two to miss each other.
Yes both missiles are more "intelligent" than a bullet, BUT the physics prevent flight path changes that cause too many forces on either missile.
An easy method to get an attack missile through an anti-missile barrier is to have multiple intelligent warheads such that even if on or two warheads are miraculously destroyed others live on to destroy targets.
While anti-missile systems can somewhat deal with multiple warheads, that just means that half a dozen very, very expensive anti-missile missiles have to be used every time. Because anti-missile missiles have to be extremely "intelligent " to have any chance of working they cost as much as ten times as each missile they are trying to destroy. That is, the attacker can fire off ten missiles for the same cost as the defender's single missile. and even if one of the ten is destroyed, the other nine fly right by and destroy stuff very accurately.
Note that an Israeli "Iron Dome" battery has ONLY 60 missiles (US$40k each) and once they are all fired, the battery is just a couple of dead trailers until the battery is reloaded (a several hour process). Israel has between 10 and 15 operational batteries. That is, Israel can ONLY stop a MAXIMUM of 900 missiles. BUT there is the "slight" problem that the iDF has documented that there are over 50000 missiles pointed at Israel.
KSA is extremely foolish to think anti-missile systems, that have a long history of FAILURE, can protect its citizens. They would do far better to NEGOTIATE with their opponents and sign treaties, but their egos and regressive religion prevent that.
This sort of arrangement, where there are two sovereign states, with an open border between them, and close co-operation economically and in other ways, is often called a confederation. Since we are starting with two states, such an arrangement is essential, at least as a transitional arrangement while the two parties work out an agreement on their future together. My view is that a full union will be more appropriate in the long run, for reasons which I explain in the the One-State-Two-Nations Proposal.
One point on which I differ with you is the question of the border. The Green Line gives 78% of the land to Israel, and 22% to Palestine. Given that the Jewish and Arab populations are roughly equal in number, this would be an injustice to the Palestinians of monumental proportion, and could not lead to a contiguous and viable Palestinian state. Palestine needs much more territory than that, which can come from the Negev.
"Observers believe these initiatives [like the destruction of Sur] aim to kill two birds with one stone: a highly valuable area is redeveloped, boosting local revenues and property values and lining developers’ pockets; and an opponent is literally marginalised, moved to housing on the urban periphery. In the case of Okmeydani, it’s Alevis, Kurds, and leftists. Next up is Sur and its Kurdish residents, along with a smattering of Assyrians, Yazidis and Armenians."
link to theguardian.com
That's really true. The cowboy hat is the symbol of Good Ol' Days American identity. It might explain why so many Whites who grew up in the 1950s somehow conflate their childhood Golden Age not with New Deal policies but with the Gilded Age that coincided with the Wild West; half the shows on TV were Westerns and the suburban "pioneers" were practically living a second fantasy life as cowboys and settlers. The real Black cowboys were coded out of existence but the hats were coded White for Good, Black for Evil.
All of which means, a White oligarch or theocrat can wear a cowboy hat, like Reagan or Bush Junior, and immediately signal that he's a tribal chauvinist who will take the side of his "people" over all others. Which is the only real problem Christian fundamentalists have with Moslem fundementalists; they are a rival tribe contending with our tribe for global control of resources and it is assumed that their version of Judeo-Christian-Moslem patriarchy is rigged to favor brown folks just as the Christian version is expected to be rigged to favor Whites.
American trillions have done the Saudi's absolutely no good!!
Women have always had a hard time getting their stories of assault taken seriously. As noted, the man sets it up so there are no independent witnesses, and thus it's a "he said, she said" case. Then, more normal men frequently refuse to believe a man could possibly act that way, "She has to be lying!"
At this particular moment, it seems that women are finally being heard! Yet now, they're criticized for "waiting so long." This is a heads up to younger, more technically-savvy women: DOCUMENTATION. Phone video. Take advantage of any surveillance cams, preferrably with mics. Let there be no doubt.
Moore isn't like an Iranian theocrat. He is alleged to have dated girls in their early teens, or to have pursued them for that purpose whereas the Iranian theocrats absolutely condemn any dating. They permit marriage of early teens but not dating.
The average age of marriage for women in Iran is 23 overall, and 25 in urban cities. And while on paper it may be 13 (with the parents and courts permission), it is extremely rare. In the rare instances that it does occur, it’s in rural areas amongst farmers.
In the US however half of the states 25/50 don’t even have a minimum age of marriage. Girls as young as 10 are legally married in the USA using such laws.
link to independent.co.uk
If large floating complexes can be made benign to the local wildlife, this is something that changes the rules of economics. There's an old saying that real estate is valuable because they can't manufacture more land. In fact, we do something worse; developers steal land from nature and so many of us are complicit in the economy that they've built and control through bought politicians that we act helpless when records floods destroy our cities because the water encounters only concrete.
Real estate speculation is the foundation of the value of the American economy. The factories we've lost have been replaced by overbuilding of homes and malls with no clear future. Educated progressives flee the bigoted exurbs for cities, only to find that by doing so they've run up rents on overcrowded apartments so high that the residents, especially of color, are driven out. The fracking boom continues because every voter living on the shale fields thinks their little piece of land will get bought, and that will make up for the earthquakes.
If we can safely live on the water and extract energy from there, we can collapse the real estate bubble and destroy the power of developers and rentiers over our politics. We can expand our cities with affordable housing and drain our real swamp - rural and suburban America - of its poor masses yearning to be free.
This post complements yesterdays, insofar as backward attitudes toward knowledge exist is both religions. Any 'good' (functional) religion will include the self-serving justifications and empowerment needed for survival.
Modernity appears to be the real threat to those everywhere who are unequipped to adapt or unwilling to do so. There has been a enormous rural to urban shift around the world over recent years, including in the US, and people with the mental capital, in terms of brains and/or the disposition to adapt, are leaving their cousins in the provinces behind to starve.
As the man said, they are left with only their guns and religion.
I authored the "Zla'od Plan" in which Israel gets to divide the territory any way it likes, then the Palestinians get to pick which half they want.
Why would Israelis ever agree to be entrust their sovereignty to an Arab-majority parliament? And even if the umbrella parliament has no jurisdiction over issues of cultural identity in the two subregions, it would at least control the military, right?
I dimly recall seeing a blue-sky proposal sort of like this, except with Jordan incorporated as a third component territory.